LaKami Baker, managing director of the Lowder Center for Family Business and Entrepreneurship, spoke at the Auburn Alumni Association on Sept. 28 as a part of the Family Friday Speaker Series.
Baker manages the Tiger Cage Accelerator, a co-working space for student entrepreneurs that started last year. Baker said the program, along with the annually-held Tiger Cage Business Idea Competition, tries to encourage an entrepreneurial mindset for students and prepare them for the corporate world.
Baker used Walt Disney, the founder of Walt Disney Studios and Walt Disney World, as an example of an entrepreneur who had an idea and took risks to achieve his goal. Baker said Disney sold his house and borrowed from his life insurance policy to fund Disney World, despite family and friends saying it would never work.
“What if he didn’t have a vision for a theme park," Baker said, which elicited a laugh from the audience. "Where would athletes go when they win a championship?”
According to Baker, true entrepreneurs act when they identify an opportunity, despite not having all resources on hand, and focus on how to make their vision a reality.
Baker said companies less than a year old account for 3 million new jobs each year. She said larger companies are beginning to rely more on automation and don’t need as many workers, so new companies help keep the economy strong because they are continuing to hire workers.
“Economies have long understood that innovation is the force principally responsible for propelling economic growth,” Baker said.
Baker said that entrepreneurial activity isn’t limited to starting a new company and assuming the risk. Entrepreneurial activity also includes seizing opportunities to innovate inside a company.
“Companies love to have people with that entrepreneurial mindset within their organization,” Baker said.
Baker said she encourages students to make sure they continue their education.
“As much confidence as I may have in their idea, I recognize that there is a chance for failure, so you want them to have that fall-back plan,” Baker said.
She said it’s not easy, and it’s not quick, but it could be a journey worth taking.
“You have the opportunity to leave Auburn with a degree and a business,” Baker added.
Haitham Eletrabi, CEO of Tennibot, and Lincoln Wang, CTO of Tennibot, are former students of Auburn University who participated in Tiger Cage. They won many awards for their business, including the CES 2018 Innovation Award.
Eletrabi said he noticed that when he played tennis with a tennis ball machine, he spent more time picking up the balls than hitting them. He said he couldn’t find a solution to his problem, so he began to look into research to solve it himself.
Wang said Tennibot caught the interest of billionare-investor Mark Cuban while they were showcasing their product at CES earlier this year.
The Auburn Alumni Association will be hosting Bill Hutto, director of the Auburn University Aviation Center and Airport, on Oct. 12. He will be speaking on a partnership between Auburn University and Delta Airlines.
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